More Like This

Preview

Image worship brought misinterpretation, and iconoclastic charges forced iconophiles to react to accusations of idolatry. In their arguments over what constituted seemly and worthwhile worship, iconophiles used traditional defenses that derived largely from the anti-Jewish texts of the seventh century. These texts included a body of polemical material from the sixth and seventh centuries aimed at combating perceived threats to Christian faith. They are often in the form of a dialogue, probably invented in most cases, but corresponding to points of faith which Christian theologians considered...

Image worship brought misinterpretation, and iconoclastic charges forced iconophiles to react to accusations of idolatry. In their arguments over what constituted seemly and worthwhile worship, iconophiles used traditional defenses that derived largely from the anti-Jewish texts of the seventh century. These texts included a body of polemical material from the sixth and seventh centuries aimed at combating perceived threats to Christian faith. They are often in the form of a dialogue, probably invented in most cases, but corresponding to points of faith which Christian theologians considered misconstrued or misunderstood by outsiders. A principal charge made in this genre was that Christians worship material objects; this chapter denies that Christians worship matter, and it answers with the symbolic defense, that honor passed through the object to God.